Mountain Society
Mountain Society 'is a secret organization with interests concerning the Other World. Its namesake headquarters lie in the mountain range of Other World's desolate northwestern part. The organization is more interested in amassing power for just the sake of being able to reform the world if needed. The organization only intervenes in the events of Other World if it seems them as very disturbing to the continued balance of the world Mountain Society has been effectively disbanded after the deaths of its leading members. The beginning The founding members of the society were children from a village in the mountain range. They had endured the harsh conditions and had understood that they had great potential, much unlike the others in their slowly dying village. One day, a young man's body floated from the sea, unconscious. (The man was Shiras, one of Fate's dragons, who had been defeated by Salga of the sea.) The local fishermen brought them to the renowned healer in the mountain village. The healer only had to spark a little power in the man, whose energies began to wildly spin within, damaging him inside but restarting his stopped heart. The man had no name, and he bore unusual, broken seals on his body. The man became part of the village to repay his debt, helping out as his powers returned. The man befriended the other aspiring youth of the village. They shared the hope to create an union of powerful individuals like themselves, so they would not have to worry of the presence of death surrounding their village. The young man adapted the art of bestial affinity and due to his battle style his friends started to call him Twin. The other founders were Alexander, a calm and informed man fascinated by everything and Gradim, the son of a huntsman who was well versed in physical combat. Lekros and the growth As the organization began its operations and the members immersed themselves in their arts, they decided to take jobs from private people in the countryside. They were discreet and did not want their organization to become too well-known since it was like a family to them, and they wished for unity above the growth. They recruited some people with extraordinary strength and managed to become a great unit. They decided bigger headquarters would be needed, and used the money they had to slowly build great headquarters in the middle of the mountain. As the headquarters were nearing completion, a man clad in white came to them. He had a strange presence that the powerful understood as a sign. He told that he felt the execution of their quest for power was lovely, but he warned that the politics of the capital and the power-hungry could corrupt men, so they would be better off avoiding business there. Alexander respected the man, who told that he was merely there since he had heard the rumours of the organization. Strangely, they did not want the man to leave, but instead asked if he could join the organization. He promised to stay. '' Gradim, the son of the huntsman had become a huntsman himself. He felt the lingering powers of the man and confronted him. "You are no human, so give me a straight answer. What are you?" The man clad in white had no answer, he merely requested that Gradim accept him like the others. Gradim refused. The man clad in white understood that and unleashed his latent powers to the surface. Gradim shook as the man had revealed himself to be an entity unlike anything ever seen before on the soil of Other World. The man was actually '''Lekros, one of the Primal Fifteen. He activated his mind control and forced Gradim to leave the area without explaining why. He came up with a fake name and introduced himself to the group that had welcomed him. He then forced Gradim to enter the darkest depths of the mountain, where he would then go insane and die. (Note that due to Lekros leaping through time after the battle that resulted in the fall of Time's End, Lekros's intervention with the organization is considered true history.) Lekros had actually been displaced from the usual flow of time due to the battle which happened in the future, in the realm called Time's End. He understood that the Primal Fifteen had likely scattered throughout time and that he would have to gain power, in order to better understand to which direction the world was going. However, Lekros had priceless information: glimpses of the timeline of Other World that he saw as he was displaced. Using those, he predicted correctly that an extremely intelligent Memory Demon, Memoraxios, would rise to be part of the government. Due to Memoraxios being immortal, Lekros knew he had already been born and would be quite difficult to deal with. The actual importance for having someone like Memoraxios was to have a scapegoat, someone who to picture as a villain. For the reason of rising to power, he convened the members of the organization after Gradim's supposed death that resulted from him dying of hunger within the mountains. Lekros noted to them that the key to power would be to gain immortality. Any event that could affect them as mere mortals would be perilous. To prevent any such events from happening, he suggested that they practice their arts to the utmost. He told that he would personally the organization for such a mission and that they would have to fight the corruption emerging from the capital. He blamed Memoraxios, who he accused of being manipulative and seeking power at all costs. These were the foundation of the organization that then received the name Mountain Society. The others unanimously accepted his leadership. He then assigned numbers to the members, beginning from himself as #1, with Alexander as #2 and so on. He explained that there needed to be a certain chain of command, but it could and should easily be overridden for the sake of efficiency. What Lekros failed to notice was that a disguised, supposedly an elder monk in their midst was actually Salga, a man who was searching for clues about the mastermind Fate among them. His name was written down in the history of the organization as he hoped, but he understood that Fate had perfectly eluded even their organization. He left clues within their data archive before faking his death, all of his actions just to allow future investigators to find out what he knew about Fate. The mortal death of an elderly person was not particularly suspicious and Salga went back to hiding. Years passed. In the next twenty years almost all of the members achieved immortality through the mastery of their arts. Lekros was pleased and proposed that they begin infiltrating the capital by recruiting new members, and discontinue their usual operations of completing jobs in the countryside. This was due to the fact that immortality essentially offered unlimited resources and money would not be an issue with such life spans. The members from the bottom ranks invited new hopefuls from the capital with promises of power. However, every single one of them disappeared. Lekros was concerned but received a message from an unknown source. "I have your spies. I know what you want. I know there are secrets behind you. But I am interested in finding out how to help your cause. We both want the same man to suffer." The message raised his attention and he left the area to the fields, hoping to get seen by this strange person who knew what he was up to. There, a dark-clad man approached him. However, Lekros sensed the man to be a memory demon. The man revealed his face, and spoke: "I heard you are going to take down Memoraxios, son of Memoxara." Lekros was astounded. "Why, you seem to know me better than most people. Who are you then?" The demon bowed. "I am Memorigo. A dark swordsman. The brother of the man you want dead." Memorigo then told how his brother had been obsessed with power for as long as he had lived and he would have to learn. However, Memorigo was always unable to convince him. The man saw no resemblance of a brother left in the politician, who had organized his private networks within the corrupt halls of the government. Lekros took the man to the hidden headquarters to see what he could do. The combat abilities of the man were unparallelled in certain areas, such as raw strength. The man was gladly accepted as part of the organization and became #3, a rank that was so low only due to the two roles above him reserved for leader (Lekros) and vice leader (Alexander). They had no actual power to overthrow the government. However, a certain backup plan was set. It was an extremely powerful engineer invention: a nuclear missile. They built it within the mountains for the possibility of a world-threatening situation. The plans of Lekros were set and he watched as the centuries went on by, unconcerned with most of what was happening. Memoraxios's grip The events that shattered the balance of Other World began with the collapse of the border of Death Lake. Micoda and Stormeye falling into Death Lake was immediately felt by Lekros and his allies. What escaped their attention was something far more devastating: Soulbane, the remnant of their fusion. Yet Stormeye's behavior appeared odd. Lekros knew that he was the shaman that had called for the destruction of the worlds. He had known about the events that were taking place. Yet he seemed awfully dull and uninterested. At some point, Lekros noted Stormeye and Micoda gathering. Not only that, but many others as well. The unusual thing that alarmed him was that out of all the places in the capital, they met in the government's building. Memorigo was ordered to come and check what was going on. The news were grim: Memoraxios had allied with the powerful people who entered from the portal. Among them were not only Micoda and Stormeye, but incredible people such as Welkere and Galaddi. The true horror for him was to discover that Go and Mytzuselah of the Fifteen had also come. Nothing quite made sense. What could have so easily manipulated these people to join Memoraxios's side, he thought. There were only two answers: Soulbane or Lekros himself. Lekros calculated that the likelihood of him having been found out was very small, so he prepared to the confrontation of this new group of nine legendary members taking on Soulbane. Strangely enough, Soulbane had also prepared nine lackeys of his, devastating abominations by the name of Scourges, which would inevitably kill and pillage the lands. The battles began. Soulbane succeeded, blowing up the government's main landmark building and killing Micoda. An interesting twist from Lekros's perspective had occurred: the councellor Memoraxios had succumbed to Soulbane's powers and had been usurped in his body. He knew that with Soulbane that powerful, they had little possibility of winning unless they made an extreme effort to weaken him with the nuclear missile. Right before taking such action, Memorigo alerted him that in actuality, Micoda had risen due to Soulbane's arrogance and was gathering power to end the battle. He hesitated and thought that acting prematurely would compromise his chances of actually stopping Memoraxios. Micoda winning the battle was an unlikely but possible scenario, and Memorigo's analysis of the situation won him over. The Box's mystery The final battle of Micoda and Soulbane ended with both of them destroying each other. Lekros noted that the event had undeniably changed something, but could not quite understand what it was. The reality of the situation was that the demons had traveled through Death Lake and set up a lair in the outskirts of the capital. Lekros felt disgusted by the offspawn of Primal Demon, but had to show great restraint. He believed that the demons would be a merely passing problem in Other World. Showing concern could possibly alert the others that he knew them beforehand and was actually one of the Primal Fifteen. One of the survivors of the battle between the group dubbed The Chosen Nine and the Scourges was none other than the historical character, emperor of times long gone, Markaj. Believing him to be dangerous, Lekros informed Memorigo, who then confronted Markaj and defeated him. The former emperor was imprisoned with a sealing technique to become the warden of the Black Tower, a prison of dark secrets and most dangerous prisoners, in the middle of the entire continent. Lekros felt his grave mistake of underestimating the demons as they spawned in great numbers and showed that among the demons were none other than the worst of them: The Three Great Demons - Demethixus, Adamangardo and Mendin. Even worse, their father Rah Jemor had been summoned to head their entire force. Twin, the fighter of great caliber, infiltrated the capital of Other World under the guise of an underworld informant and killed several men in pursuit of possible true goals of the invasion. He found out that an artifact of immense power had intrigued the demons to the extent that they were willing to conquer the land to search for it. The artifact had some immense destructive capabilities. Before Twin could leave with the information, he was ambushed by someone he vaguely remembered as a risk factor: Kanero the councellor. The man was not a demon but had the lifespan of an immortal, so it rose the question what he might be after. Twin prepared to defeat them, but Kanero stepped down and assured he only wanted to talk. Kanero had insight to the fact that the leader of the organization was not whom they believed, telling him that the man, according to his deductions, was likely one of the Primal Fifteen. Twin did not know what that meant, so Kanero told of the eighteen Primal Entities. Twin was confused, but reluctantly agreed that he would help Kanero if he found the leader suspicious. The demon influence reached a whole another stage as they had cast a ritual turning the entire continent into a scarlet domain of theirs and converting spirits at a steady rate to serve their demon masters. This troubled Lekros greatly, as he knew he had had the opportunity to stop this. After all, Primal Fury had demonstrated the ability to overtake the situation before in Time's End as well. However, now he had adequate reason to order the Society to fight the invaders. Twin's allegiance wavered, but he focused on stopping the demon threat. An unknown creature appeared from the shadows, wearing an olive cloak and a sword unlike any he had seen. It was shaped like a key, and Twin felt a repulsive aura from the entity. It did not seem human, though it was humanoid. Twin unleashed his battle arts, as he felt unsafe around it and was countered by the fluid sword movements of the creature. Unable to let the creature win without gaining information, Twin made a quick light attack to reveal the face of the enemy. It was that of a albino wolf-man. The creature disengaged from combat and told that it only wanted to stop the world from suffering. Twin could somehow understand the thought: after all, all of the Society was interested in defeating the invasion as well. Asking for its name, the only answer it told was that it was called Silver. The wolf told Twin of the demons searching for something called The Box, part of a collection three artifacts with the others being The Key and The List. Twin understood that the blade wielded by Silver had to have something to do with The Key, and Silver confirmed that he had been drawn to the artifact and found it before the demons. Twin, having already questioned the integrity of the Society's operations, saw nothing bad in allying with this like-minded creature as well. However, this exchange did not escape Memorigo's eye. As Twin returned to HQ and gave his report to the two highest ranks, being Lekros and Alexander, Memorigo set out to search whether the information was even true and if Silver was an ally at any level. At this time, Lekros had noted that some remnants of Micoda's power were on the move. He was not aware that Micoda's closest allies had been reduced to mere gems. These soul gems were traveling throughout the land. Also unknown to him was that they were in the hands of Jakram and Marudeux. The resurgence of these powers without his awareness forced him to go to Markaj's Black Tower in the middle of the continent and ask him what he knew. Lekros arrived and told of his own role as the "secret guardian" of Other World. He was surprised to not be met with hostility. Instead, Markaj had become repentant. He had understood that the role of him as the villain who was once known as the Scourge of Highcosmos would not suffice. He would continue with the duty in the dark prison. Markaj put it the way that ''"in the end, it does not matter who wield political power. This prison holds many dangerous ones for the sake of public safety. I will keep on this path and make my life useful." ''However, regarding the query for information, Markaj could say very little. He had had his senses bound so effectively by the bindings of Lekros that he knew very little of what was going on. Lekros freed his from his bindings and left. Memorigo returned with news of Silver's identity. He had sensed that the creature was something connected to Soulbane. This meant grave trouble regardless of whether it was truly fighting for the sake of defeating the Three Great Demons. The wolfman would have to be eliminated. Twin returned to the fieldwork, to observe the demons. The kindhearted Alexander and the calculating Lekros argued about what should be done regarding Twin. Memorigo entered the HQ a bit later and confirmed that Twin had made contact with Silver for a second time. The contact had not been authorised, and Memorigo proposed to interrogate Twin. However, such plans were put on hold as Micoda mystically recovered from his supposed death and made an appearance at the capital, at demons' HQ, to fight the demons. Both Twin and Silver were present as well. Memorigo could not approach the scene without giving away that he had been spying on a fellow member. The demons fell, and Memorigo noticed that Twin had somehow smuggled confidential data from the Society's HQ. However, Twin confronted Micoda and attempted to kill him, only to face clear defeat. Twin ran away with his life. Memorigo, disappointed and angered, confronted him and killed him in cold blood for betraying the organization. Marudeux's plot The truth of the matter was hidden from Lekros. What he had been wanting to achieve was merely on the surface, since even the Primal Fifteen had little information. The true mastermind who was deeply veiled in secrets, Fate, started acting. He had now grown alerted by the rise of the Mountain Society and understood that such forces could not possibly be let run rampant. Fate had been growing his power deep down in the depths of the continent. He was an Ancient - a character born on the original world of Genesis. The Ancient of Nothingness, Marudeux, had appeared. He was someone who Fate did not really know a thing about, and who appeared to be active now that somehow The Fragmented Chronicle had appeared. Even more alarming was that another Ancient, Kanero, had emerged with political power unlike before. The death of many famous politicians had allowed Kanero and start affecting the society far more than what Fate felt comfortable with. Kanero had obtained priceless artifacts that interested any with an idea of their true value. That included Lekros.